Baseball is a game that relies heavily on statistics. For example, the possibility of a player making the Hall of Fame can depend upon mere percentage points when looking at the player's career batting average. Additionally, statistics are used to assess a player's skill and are reviewed in great detail when determining if the player is able to reach higher levels of expertise. A player's ability to improve his performance and the associated statistics over the course of a season or career will greatly enhance the probability of his success at a variety of levels.
Over the past few decades, there has been a transformation in the way children and young adults practice and play baseball. Rather than gathering around the local sandlot, a number of ball players, for both baseball and softball, now receive professional instruction from experienced coaches at local indoor baseball facilities. With respect to hitting, conventional indoor baseball facilities offer year round clinics utilizing batting cages and pitching machines to improve the players' swing mechanics, bat speed, and ability to hit the ball on the sweet spot of the bat. As a result, the indoor baseball facilities can help to improve the players' batting average.